[Request] A Mandatory Hall of Excellence training program for all jobs

[AnotherPerson]

I would like SE to implement a training program beyond the Hall of Novice and call it the "Hall of Excellence". The Hall of Excellence doesn't expect anything extreme, but it does teach the player how to play content beyond a certain level (ex: Lv 60/70 content) because the game drastically changes compared to its earlier stages at the Hall of Novice. There can be individual training for each role - tank, healer, DPS, or a specialized training tailored to each individual job to help players brush up the basics when picking the job up for the first time.

I'm requesting this because I'm concerned of the new healer job [Sage] being released as a level 70 job. For anyone who has played a healer role before, healers start out at relatively low levels (Lv. 1 For Conjurers / Lv. 30 for Scholars and Astrologians). Even as a new healer, because dungeons at the lower levels have relatively little skills, it is easy to pick up the basics on how to play the job. Having the new healer job start at level 70 will cause major problems for people who never played healer before and plan on jumping into Shadowbringers expansion for the first time with the new job. The reason I bring this up is because I have seen people who want to try out Shadowbringers using a level 70 jump potion lack a proper foundation in their role to complete a duty successfully, but this is especially true for the backbone of a party - the healer.

The most notable example of this causing an issue is Holminister Switch - the first Shadowbringers dungeon - and a very common leveling dungeon for players at level 71. Holminister Switch is one of the first dungeons where healing requirements does go up because of the change in the strength of our heals relative to our HP bars. Mobs hit fairly hard, so it requires the healer and the tank to know what they are doing and the DPS to put out a decent amount of damage or the healer will inevitably run out of MP. Unlike players who have played White Mage / Scholar / Astrologian first and have some familiarity with the role, players who try out Sage as a healer for the first time will be completely at a loss at what to do, and a dungeon like Holminister Switch is not exactly the most friendly of ways to begin learning how to heal. Even then, players with some familiarity with their job will still feel a very heavy difficulty spike if they were misinformed on how their job functions and would assume this is due to other players inadequacy when in fact it is due to themselves for causing the party to wipe.

This issue will only get worse as we have higher level caps with newer expansions and - as a result - new jobs starting at higher levels.

I do notice that our story quests for jobs without a class (RDM/SAM/GNB/DNC) teach how to play the role early on with a tutorial, but not every player likes to do the storyline quest. Some players like to immediately try the job by immediately queueing into Duty Finder but doesn't realize the trouble they will run into immediately after. Others who do the storyline quest may not absorb everything in one go and may sometimes still be confused on certain points in how their job works.

To help all players avoid all of these issues - I would like all jobs complete a mandatory training program once before being allowed to use the Duty Finder. This training program can also be done for the initial jobs that started as classes after a certain level once as a standard checkpoint for those jobs. While I do understand how annoying it is to have to go through a tutorial for something you feel you already know even if it is only once, I believe this is the best way to prepare players for new jobs and avoiding basic mishaps when moving forward.

[VelKallor]

Mandatory

A flat no.

I would like all jobs complete a mandatory training program once before being allowed to use the Duty Finder.

Again, NO. Duty finder access starts at a very early stage, and this would also be a roadblock to MSQ....be told to do a "mandatory' training course before Sastasha?

So, no. The game runs fine as is and I dont see any need for it. By the way...you didnt say what happens if you dont get through it? You cant play past 60? You cant do MSQ past 60?...or had you forgotten that MSQ 60-80 requires a large number of dungeons?

[Shougun]

Maybe for savage, but otherwise I think mandatory would just hurt the game. For savage it might help since 1 player can frequently ruin the whole run, and the content is supposed to be hard so you should be expected to have some basics down.


Unfortunately someone may pass the test and then still willfully leech as hard as they can lol.

[ItMe]

A flat no.
[...]
Again, NO. Duty finder access starts at a very early stage

I agree.
Having it at level, what, 16 wouldn't exactly "prove" anything either.
Heck, having the check around 60 / 70, or anywhere before cap wouldn't be worthwhile. If anything you could say someone needs to beat a training dummy for an EX in order to unlock it, but IIRC SQEX has said they don't wanna do that because it's more important to be able to perform outside a vacuum.

Also, is that a 1 in your post count?
Welcome to the forums~

[VelKallor]

Unfortunately someone may pass the test and then still willfully leech as hard as they can lol.

I had to deal with this back in WOW with that "Proving Grounds" nonsense. All THAT accomplished was to accelerate a sub loss that made WOD infamous.

With all due respect, I dont pay to play a game that tells me I have to "sit an exam" to be "allowed" to play a class that is advertised as part of a new expansion.

Also, is that a 1 in your post count? Welcome to the forums~

Aye, it is and thank you.

[Shougun]

I had to deal with this back in WOW with that "Proving Grounds" nonsense. All THAT accomplished was to accelerate a sub loss that made WOD infamous.

With all due respect, I dont pay to play a game that tells me I have to "sit an exam" to be "allowed" to play a class that is advertised as part of a new expansion.



Aye, it is and thank you.

I liked the idea of the proving grounds as a content in and of itself, but it is valuable info to know that someone didn't like it as a test. May still have it, just be optional I suppose (?).


Personally I stay away from DF savage because it is usually a good way to have nothing to show for your time, sure you will win sometimes but it's not great ratio when you are time limited lol. If there was a way to increase savage DF quality I'm all ears XD.

[VelKallor]

Optional is fine. Mandatory is not.

And it DEFINITELY should not be used as a roadblock between 60-80. Thats a fast way to lose players.

[Shibi]

...Mandatory...

Try your suggestion without that word and you would likely have more support. Enhanced optional hall of the novice is always welcome. Like at 15, a slightly better set of gear can be rewarded.

[Jade3173]

Maybe for savage, but otherwise I think mandatory would just hurt the game. For savage it might help since 1 player can frequently ruin the whole run, and the content is supposed to be hard so you should be expected to have some basics down.


Unfortunately someone may pass the test and then still willfully leech as hard as they can lol.

this is the way to do it, gives people a wake up call before they head into parties and potentially waste the time of 7 other people.

[Rongway]

With all due respect, I dont pay to play a game that tells me I have to "sit an exam" to be "allowed" to play a class that is advertised as part of a new expansion.

On the other hand, I don't pay to play a game where I have to carry a bunch of people who aren't ready for the content they're queuing for.

I don't need anything like this to be mandatory, but it would be really nice to have some sort of "Certified only" setting in Party Finder that only lets people in who have completed some kind of optional exam.*

While such an exam wouldn't necessarily mean "You can definitely beat this hard content that you are now certified for," not being able to finish it would mean "You definitely need more practice before you can make a meaningful contribution to a party that is attempting this content." A lot of people go into content not understanding that they're just not ready to make a meaningful contribution to the party. Maybe they need a better gate and feedback system that shows them when they're not ready.


* Lest you argue against this, Ultimate has this already.